Owaisi urges PM, EAM to rescue Indians forced to fight in Russia war
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Hyderabad: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to take steps to bring back 12 Indians who were reportedly forced to fight in Ukraine alongside the Russian Army.
The Hyderabad MP said the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister should take up the issue with Russia and bring the youth safely to India as their families are worried about their safety.
He claimed these unemployed youth were sent to Russia to work as security personnel at buildings. The men received basic weapons-handling training and were forced onto the battlefield. They were tricked into volunteering for the army and sent to fight in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Donetsk, NDTV reported.
Owaisi told media persons that they included two youths from Telangana, three from Karnataka, two from Kashmir and one each from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. He said that after the family members of some of these youths met him, he wrote to Jaishankar and the Indian Ambassador in Russia.
Also Read: Indians forced to fight in Ukraine war after being hired as 'army security helpers'
"Unemployed men from Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh were promised jobs by agents in Russia, where they were told that they would work as building security agents but were duped and sent to the battlefield. I met the families of these men in December last year who sought help from me. I've written to the External Affairs Minister and India's Ambassador to Russia to bring them back," Owaisi said during a press conference, as quoted by NDTV.
Faisal Khan, one of the agents, runs a YouTube channel named 'Baba Vlogs'. Khan allegedly cheated the Indians and is in Dubai. The YouTuber, with over 300,000 subscribers, posts videos on how to get job offers in different countries and how he assists people in receiving work permits.
Sufiyan and Puja are from Mumbai. Ramesh and Moin are Indian agents in Russia, Owaisi claimed.
The AIMIM MP said the youth sent a video showing how they were pushed on the war front and were fired upon. They also claimed that one of them was killed in the attack, Owaisi said.
The Ministry of External Affairs is yet to respond.
After two years of war in Ukraine, with diminished Western support, Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares for prolonged conflict, ruling out negotiations for a breakthrough. Analysts predict continued fighting in 2024 as Ukraine seeks to reclaim territory, while Putin insists on Kyiv's unconditional surrender.
With agency inputs
